Every year, the Valente Center invites applications from full-time faculty members for research fellowships. The Center seeks to support faculty engaged in innovative research and creative scholarships, encourage cross-disciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration, promote A&S research to internal and external audiences, and broaden the impact of scholarship at the intersection of the arts, sciences and business on Bentley students.
2016-17 Faculty Research Fellows
Sandeep R. Purao, Trustee Professor of Information and Process Management
Sandeep R. Purao holds a PhD in Management Science (MIS) from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. At Bentley, Purao holds a Trustee Professor position in the Information and Process Management group. His research and teaching deals with the design of complex techno-organizational systems, and the sciences of design.
Project: Value Networks and Design Influences in Smart Cities
The proposed work involves a study of how Values (ethical principles) and Value (economic utility) influence the design of smart city solutions. The problem statement directly confronts a fallacy: that smart city solutions to improve convenience and efficiency (e.g. parking apps or traffic optimization) will contribute to broad social outcomes in domains such as health and education, and lead to resilient, healthy and smart cities. Instead of framing the problem as a duality, I seek to investigate the interplay, framing it as a Value-Values continuum. If successful, the results can directly benefit the massive investment of public funds in planned smart city initiatives (Whitehouse 2015).
Val C. Wang, Assistant Professor of English and Media Studies
Val Wang is an author and multimedia storyteller. Evan Osnos has called her book Beijing Bastard “a memoir perfectly suited to the Beijing that she brings to life so well: heedless, pungent, and proudly insubordinate.”
Her multimedia projects work at the edge of digital innovation in journalism. She most recently created and produced Planet Takeout, an interactive, multiplatform documentary on the role of Chinese takeouts as a vital cultural crossroads in America. The project incubated at WGBH Radio as part of the nationwide Localore initiative.
She teaches in the English and Media Studies Department of Bentley University. She lives in Boston but her heart is still partly in Beijing.
Project: Chinese Acrobatics on a Global Stage
I am working on long-term, multi-phase multimedia project that traces acrobatics in China as it transitions from an ancient tradition into a modern global performance spectacle. The first phase of the project is a video documentary profile of a globe-trotting young Chinese acrobat. During the fellowship period, I will submit the documentary to festivals and move on to the next phase, conducting historical research and traveling to China to do research and conduct interviews to add to the storytelling series I am producing.